مجموعة ٦/ ١٩ "الجزيرة العربية: (المملكة العربية السعودية) التقرير السنوي لمملكة الحجاز ونجد." [ظ‎‎١‎٤‎٢] (٥٤٠/٢٨٥)

government. On the conclusion of its Inst two years session at the end of
A.H. 1353 (the 14th April, 1934) it presented a report on its activities. This
showed that it had considered numerous regulations of every kind, some of which,
though not all, can be identified with enactments promulgated in due course,
besides a limited number of minor budgets. It has also taken some 500
decisions on administrative matters, reviewed the proceedings of the special^
commercial court or Majlis-at-Tujjar in Jedda and concerned itself, jointly with
the special commission ad hoc, with pilgrimage affairs. The King opened a new
session of the Council, the composition of which remained as before, on the
21st April.
125. What is more important than all this playing about with constitutional
and legislative forms at the centre, is the fact that all the principal provisional
governors, who, under the King, wield authority on old-fashioned lines, remained
the same in 1934 as at the end of 1933; the King’s cousins Ibn Jiluwi and Ibn
Musaid at Hasa and Hail respectively; members of the Sadairi family, his
connexions by marriage, at Jauf and Abha; a strong, fanatical and arbitrary old
Nejdi at Medina; and an amiable young scion of the princely house of Ayaina, once
the equals of the Bani Sand, in Jedda.
126. So little is known in Europe of the administrative system of Saudi
Arabia, that it has seemed worth while to add as an appendix to this report, a
summary of the section of Fuad Bey Hamza’s book, published in 1933, which
deals with the subject.
IV.— Financial, Economic and Commercial Affairs.
Finance.
127. There was no material change in the unhappy financial situation of
Saudi Arabia in 1934. Its most remarkable feature was that money was found
by hook or by crook to meet the comparatively heavy expenditure entailed by a war
even in Arabia and that the King was able in the autumn to distribute to those
tribesmen who had served him loyally, amounts in cash estimated at £100,000
gold or more, apart from the cost of their entertainment at Riyadh. So far as
foreign suppliers were concerned, the Government were more punctual in their
payments than they have often been in the past.
128. Where the money came from is a mystery. It could be accounted for
to a small extent by the appreciable, but not great, increase in the number of
overseas pilgrims, and by a further payment of £20,000 gold, plus £5,000 annual
rental, by the California Arabian Standard Oil Company in the summer. No
other important sums of money are known to have come from external sources,
except perhaps something from the Banque Misr and its associates on account
of quarantine dues to be paid in due course in respect of the numerous pilgrims
whom they hoped to transport from Egypt in 1935. There may be more truth
than previously seemed probable in the suggestion that the King had been accumu
lating a gold reserve at Riyadh. There is almost certainly no truth in the belief
entertained by some, notably by Mr. Philby, that His Majesty extracted a secret
war indemnity from the Yemen (see paragraph 34).
129. It is impossible to say whether additional revenue resulted from known
fiscal legislation. The changes of most apparent importance were a revision of
the customs tariff and the institution of a licence tax on all persons engaged in
trade or other avocations in the towns. The first of these measures fixed flat
rates of specific duty for rice, wheat and flour, which had previously been
differentiated according to quality. It also provided specific duties for a large
number of articles, which had previously been taxed under general headings in
the list of goods subject to specific duty or had been dutied ad valorem. The
second measure provided that all persons engaged in trade or professions should
be divided into four categories and take out licences costing £2 gold, £1 gold,
£^ gold and gold according to the category. Another decree provided that an
extra “National First-Aid stamp,” value ^-piastre miri, should be affixed to all
letters, petitions and documents already liable to stamp duty. Other enactments
of less apparent importance dealt with judicial and notarial fees and the
regulation on the Coast-Guard Administration, mentioned in paragraph 175
below, had attached to it an impressive list of dues of various kinds.